


one bottle of the ol' janx spirit

by gwmclintock88



Series: Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster - Skimmons Week 2015 [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Day 1 prompt - Fake Date/Marriage, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Skimmons Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 17:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4885345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwmclintock88/pseuds/gwmclintock88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the time, it seemed completely reasonable to hire someone off of the Internet to be her date. Except it wasn't supposed to be real, and it wasn't supposed to be so wonderful, and Daisy just had to be perfect.  So of course, it's also perfectly reasonable that Jemma fell in love with her fake date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one bottle of the ol' janx spirit

**Author's Note:**

> Its kind of cheating, but I've been working on this for a while. Skimmons Week 2015 gave my the impetus to finish it. This takes place in a world without powers, without SHIELD, but its still the characters we know and love. 
> 
> This story is actually based off a post I saw on imgur of someone advertising to be a date for Thanksgiving, and I thought it would be fun to apply it here. Please let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Also, the title is taken from my favorite book of all time Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. All the story titles for this week will be based on that theme. 
> 
> I own nothing except the plot.

            Jemma couldn’t believe she was doing this. Yes, her parents were absolutely horrible at times, and yes, she would have loved to spend the holidays doing anything but spending time with them, but she did love them, even if her father had the tendency to get too forceful with his opinions about her life and the direction it was taking. Her mother found comfort in the bottle and well that left her with two older siblings more competitive and spiteful than she thought her genes could make. It had to be the ‘nurture’ they experienced, or rather lack thereof considering the amount of nannies her mother insisted on employing before sending them off to boarding school.

            That just left holidays as important gathering events and Jemma would rather spend time in her lab than having to deal with all of her family’s awkward questions. She knew her family weren’t as bad as she thought they were, but it was just so tiring playing up the image of the girl they thought they raised. And don’t get her started on the talks about not having a boyfriend, or when she was going to have kids, or work for the family business, or any of a number of wonderful topics her family liked to bring up. Of course, what family meeting wouldn’t be complete without those little conservative snipes that were just this side of polite?

            So of course the rational thing to do was hire someone to play her significant other for the weekend that would utterly shock and appall her parents.

            “Simmons?” Jemma turned around to see a women a little bit taller than her approaching her, a smile growing on her face.

            “That’s me, and you must be Daisy,” Jemma held out her hand to shake, but fell into a hug from the other girl. She wrapped around the woman as she fell, trying to maintain her balance.  “And Jemma is fine. We are ‘dating’ after all.”

            “Right – Jemma. This is going to be awesome,” Daisy said. For a few minutes before, Jemma had second thoughts, but now that she got a good look at her, this definitely was going to be.

            “Yeah. Yeah it is,” Jemma said. She pulled back, finding herself smiling at the thought of upsetting the perfect little world her parents created. “You ready to head out?”

            “Yeah, definitely,” Daisy said, tapping a bag and grabbing a rolling suitcase. “You decide on what you want me to do?”

            “Not yet, but we’ve got a plane ride to figure that out.” Jemma only had her carry-on with her, the rest she had checked. They began to walk to their gate. The wait wouldn’t be too long, and hopefully, they could actually get to know each other. It wasn’t like Jemma had time to make a lot of friends working for SHIELD laboratories, and the few she had already were in a relationship (Bobbi, sort of - it’s complicated and requires at least two bottles of wine to explain) or had their own plans (Fitz – going off to visit his mother in Scotland, something he did every Christmas).

            “Oh God, please don’t tell me you’ve got this down to the very second,” Daisy said, shooting her a smile. Jemma tried to return it, because what’s wrong with a plan? Also, she was a terrible liar. “How about we meet somewhere in the middle?”

            “That sounds…doable?” Jemma said.

            Daisy smiled at her again, and Jemma couldn’t help but return it. “Sweet. This going to be so much fun.”

**I0I**

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Jemma whispered.

            Daisy rolled her eyes and laced Jemma’s hand with her own. “You contacted me, remember?”

            “Yes, but I was drunk and obviously out of my mind,” she said. “Who hires someone to be their girlfriend?”

            “Someone desperately wanting to freak out their parents,” Daisy pointed out.

            “I’m not even out to them.” Jemma desperately wanted to close her eyes and lean her head against the window, except she had decided to drive instead of taking a cab. She just focused on the road, vaguely listening to the directions being pipped from the little speaker on her phone.

            “Wait, what?” Daisy tugged her their joined hands. Jemma glanced down at them and then up to her. “What do you mean: you’re not out?”

            “I mean I haven’t told them I’m bisexual.”

            “That is…okay, well, I can work with that.”

            “How?”

            “You’re nervousness is easily played off as telling this to your parents, not that I’m not a sexual deviant who is corrupting their daughter – which for the purposes of this weekend, I totally am.” Daisy winked at her. Jemma felt the blush nearly overcome her. She wasn’t blind, Daisy was exactly the type of woman she would have loved to have dated. Well, maybe not exactly, given that she was a line cook by day, bartender by night (and hacker all the time, something Daisy happily pointed out), and not her typical paramour. Daisy was incredibly attractive, and given Jemma’s admittedly above-average fashion sense and appearance, someone that would not be out of her league either. So, their dating was not a complete theoretical impossibility, even with their disarranging tastes. The sleeve of tattoos was kind of hot too, not that you could see it right now, but Daisy showed her an Instagram image of it and well, damn.

            Daisy shuffled in her seat, trying to remove her phone from her pocket. She reached her free hand over her body to dig out the phone, not letting go of Jemma’s hand as she did. “Now,” she said as she typed in the password of her phone, “you said we’re going with the ‘met at my bar’ history, right?”

            “That was the only one you proposed that was totally plausible,” Jemma said, rolling her eyes.

            “Still say fighting mutant chickens for your lab would work,” Daisy said. She stopped flipping through something on her phone. “Does your family even understand what you do?”

            “Do you?” Jemma shot back.

            “Don’t have to, I just know you enjoy it,” Daisy said.

            “Jerk,” Jemma said, tugging her hand free to cross her arms over her chest. Not that she was actually upset, but playing with Daisy was fun. She slowed the car as she pulled into her parents’ drive. Several cars were already parked along the way, leaving her to parallel park between her cousin’s and her brother’s very expensive cars. She took a deep breath before maneuvering their tiny car between them, without bumping them.

            “Nicely done,” Daisy said, applauding her. Jemma blushed as she parked the vehicle. “I’d have crashed the damn thing out of spite.”

            “Well, we don’t need them to hate you yet. Let’s wait until they meet you.”  Jemma opened her door and turned to look at her parent’s estate.

            Daisy exited the car first and went back to the boot, grabbing their suitcases. Jemma watched her in mirror, moving confidently over the ice and snow. Taking another deep breath, she opened her door and climbed out – only to nearly fall on her face from the patch of ice. She managed to grab onto the door, holding herself up through sheer will alone (the door was pretty handy too).

            “You okay?” Daisy turned back around to look at her.

            “Yes, just,” Jemma got her feet back underneath her, “don’t worry about me.”

            “Kind of my job for the weekend.” Daisy walked back to her side and offered her arm.

            Jemma figured the cold could account for her blush, because really, she shouldn’t say sweet things like that. She grabbed her own suitcase, unnecessarily holding onto Daisy as they walked to the front entrance. Once she had her feet under her, she didn’t need help navigating the walkway, but Daisy offered her a solid place to lean against while dealing with her family.  Plus, she _should_ hold onto her girlfriend.

            “Ready for this?” Daisy asked when they reached the front door.

            “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

            “Well, I’m ready for anything,” Daisy said with a shrug. “It’s part of why you fell for me.”

            Jemma raised an eyebrow at the statement, prompting the smile to shift to a smirk. “Really?”

            “Really,” Daisy said. She reached over and rang the doorbell. “I am quite the catch.”

            “I’ll let my parents judge that,” Jemma said. She rang the doorbell, and it wasn’t long before she saw her father’s face on the other side. “Hello father. This is Daisy, my girlfriend.”

**I0I**

It turns out, even if you start with the ‘fake-coming-out-that-was-actually-her-coming-out’ the evening really can get worse. Her father didn’t faint or anything, but his face was a pale white she’d never seen. Daisy ignored any emotion he tried to exhibit and just held out her hand for him to shake. Eventually, her father did, and asked that they come inside.

            Things kind went on a rollercoaster from there. Her mother loved Daisy, which rankled her father even more. Her uncles and their wives were taking a decidedly wait-and-see approach, though the general distain for anything that disrupted their ivy towers never left their faces. Abigail didn’t care for Daisy at all, siding with father it seemed, while Roger just drank his weight in good scotch.

            There was shouting, crying, glasses breaking, and general catastrophe – a surprising calm response given that Jemma was expecting to be kicked out that evening. Not that she’d tell Daisy that, because her fake-girlfriend was a saint to be putting up with all of that.

            “Everything okay?” Like right now. Daisy walked over from the bar where she was getting Jemma a glass of wine.  She took it with a smile, getting her fake-date to blush slightly. She leaned up and kissed Daisy’s cheek. It deepened the blush, but so far, Daisy was amazing and there were few words Jemma could find to describe her thanks.

            “Yes,” Jemma said, moving closer into Daisy’s orbit. She knew from the way everyone kept glancing over they were talking about them, and part of it she thought had to do with Daisy stumbling about a bit. “Didn’t you want another one?” She motioned to the still full glass of wine.

            “Well…I don’t really drink,” Daisy said. She wrapped her arm tighter around Jemma’s waist, but swayed anyway.

            “But you’re…you’ve been drunk for at least half an hour,” Jemma whispered. She caught Abigail’s disapproving glare from across the room and resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at her sister.

            Daisy shrugged her shoulder. “I play drunk very well.” She glanced around before leaning closer to whisper in her ear. “I’m…I’m an alcoholic.” Jemma stared up at Daisy, trying to determine if she was serious or not. The shy smile wasn’t the one she had plastered on her face all night. It wasn’t the one she used to greet her father or talk to her mother. It was the smile she saw at the airport. Self-deprecating and adorable at the same time. She wondered if Daisy ever told anyone else this early, or in this way.

            Jemma turned in Daisy’s grip to place her glass down on the end table before putting Daisy’s next to hers. “Come on.” She tugged Daisy along with her, finding the strong woman to be surprisingly easy to pull.  Daisy played along, still acting drunk and nearly stumbled into her as they stopped in front of her parents. “Father, it’s been a long day for us. We’re going to retire.”

            “We’re having an early lunch tomorrow. I expect you will be there.” Her father glared at Daisy who just leaned further into Jemma. Not that she was complaining.

            “Yes father. Goodnight mother,” Jemma said before pulling Daisy out of the room. She knew everyone was watching them.

            Jemma kept a hold of Daisy’s arm as they walked up to the room prepared for them. Once they were out of the range of anyone’s sight, Daisy stood up and was perfectly fine. Jemma wasn’t letting go of that arm, because of…reasons. She didn’t want to think about those reasons right now, instead, she focused on getting to her bedroom so they could talk.

The bedroom had been Jemma’s growing up, but she rarely was there at the time. She mainly either spent her time a boarding schools or traveling with her family. This particular bedroom was the one they used whenever traveling to this mountain resort. She rarely attended those events, and only did so under the strict orders of her father. Still, it was a piece of her childhood, and the few fond memories she had encompassed her each time she entered.

            Once they were safely away from the prying ears of her family, Jemma turned to Daisy. “Are you okay?”

            “What?” Daisy blinked several times.

            “From what I’ve read, it cannot be easy for an alcoholic to be around that much in one sitting. My family drinks quite a bit, and never understood the idea of ‘responsible drinking.’ Seeing them like that must not have been comfortable,” Jemma said, staring into Daisy’s eyes. “I probably made it worse with all I was drinking, let alone handing you the first glass of the night.”

            “Only glass,” Daisy said. Jemma conceded the point but wasn’t going to be deterred.

            “Only glass. But are you okay?”

            Daisy remained silent, staring at her before the question finally seemed to sink in. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

            “And you didn’t have any?”

            “No,” Daisy shook her head so quickly Jemma worried she’d give herself whiplash. “No, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

            Jemma lasted only a few moments before throwing her arms around Daisy into a tight hug. She felt arms being wrapped around her waist in return. “You are the best fake-girlfriend anyone could ask for.”

            “Well, I’d hate to disappoint,” Daisy whispered into her ears. Jemma hid her blush in Daisy’s neck, but she knew the other woman could feel her smile. “Now, do you know what the plan is for tomorrow?”

            “No, we probably will find out about it at lunch,” Jemma said. “I know that skiing is planned for some time soon, but other than the holiday dinner, there isn’t much.”

            “Not even Christmas?” Daisy pulled back, slightly shocked at this. Jemma tried to offer a smile before shaking her head.

            “My family never celebrated it, or rather, we didn’t if we could get away with it,” she said. “Father believed it was an unnecessary holiday that rewarded bad behavior.”

            “But…but…presents!” Daisy said, nearly screaming it into her ear.

            “It’s been better now that I’m away from them, and usually I’ll spend it with friends or at the movies, but…”

            “That doesn’t make up for a childhood of Christmases.” Daisy glared at the door, as if her parents were just on the other side. “I even had Christmases growing up. Not much, but they were something.”

            Jemma felt back into Daisy’s full embrace. “It doesn’t matter. It’ll be better once I leave, but for now, I’ll deal with it.”

            “Well, does that mean you don’t want a present?” Daisy asked. “’Cause if you don’t, then I’ll return it when I get back home.”

            “Don’t you dare!” Jemma removed herself from Daisy to slap her arm. She gave the other woman a smile, earning one in return before Daisy started to pout and rub the arm. “Just because my parents don’t celebrate it, doesn’t mean I don’t.”

            “Good,” Daisy said. Daisy finally began to look around the room before spotting the bed. It was rather large for one person, but Jemma grew up with the king size bed. “So, we’re sharing that?”

            “That going to be a problem?” Jemma raised an eyebrow in challenge. Daisy shook her head again.

            “Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p.’ Her shy smile turned into a wide one, and without warning, Daisy lifted her up and tossed her on the bed. Jemma shrieked as she landed before Daisy jumped to join her.

            “You…you…” Jemma struggled to find the words as she started to laugh.

            “‘Wonderful girlfriend’ comes to mind,” Daisy said. She turned onto her back and stared up at the canopy of the bed. “This is better than all of my beds I’ve ever had – combined.”

            “It’s not that great,” Jemma tried to deny.

            “It’s going to be like sleeping on a cloud,” Daisy said. She rolled off the bed, heading to her suitcase. “Bathroom is…?” Jemma leaned up on her elbow to point at a door in her room. Thankfully, she didn’t have to share the bathroom with anyone, which meant that Daisy didn’t have to either. “Be right back.”

            Jemma quickly changed into her pajamas and sat on the edge of the bed waiting for her to return. So far, things hadn’t been so bad. Her family let her be, and Daisy was great being Daisy. Tomorrow, they would be left alone, but the family dinner would encompass most of the evening. Hopefully, Daisy could make that as fun as she made today.

**I0I**

“You’re kidding me!” Daisy waved her hand as she stared at her uncle. Jemma hid a smile behind her glass of water.

            The days passed marvelously. Between Daisy never leaving her side (thereby preventing her brother, Reginald, and parents from asking annoying questions) and spending the day antiquing (which actually involved making up stories about the items – and nearly getting them kicked out of the store from laughing too hard), skiing (which involved a lot of running into her family, making them fall down, or falling down into Jemma), and just plain wandering the town(with the obligatory holding hands and cuddling because of the cold) Jemma couldn’t remember a Christmas holiday as wonderful as this. Her sister seemed more relaxed, though that may be related to the absence of her husband than anything else.

Abigail finally admitted before dinner that Daniel, her husband (soon-to-be ex-husband), had cheated on her for most of their marriage and was finally getting the boot. Daisy somehow became Abigail’s favorite when she offered to ruin the man’s credit history and subscribe him to every gay porn site known to man, and few that weren’t.  It also didn’t hurt that she picked up little toys for Abigail’s two little boys, and no, Jemma did not swoon or anything like that watching Daisy play with them. She wasn’t that type of woman (okay, she totally was and Daisy playing with kids only made her think of how great she would be with their kids, except they weren’t really dating and this was total farce and damn her heart).

“You want me to believe you support the measures to restrict Planned Parenthood?” Daisy glared at her Uncle Aldridge, sloshing her wine glass around theatrically. She managed to get some on the vintage tablecloth, and each drop made her mother wince and Jemma want to giggle.  “Next, you’re going to say you’d support Donald Trump.”

“He does have business acumen to deal with –“

“No! You can’t be serious about support that toupee,” Daisy nearly screamed it at the man.  “Have you heard what he’s said about immigrants?”

“They shouldn’t be there illegally, I don’t see the harm in –“

“You’d actually support the deportation of someone just because their circumstances forced them to arrive in a country illegal – after they’ve worked their ass off for you.” Daisy glared at him from over the rim of her glass. Most of the wine was now on the table or on poor Aunt Elizabeth sitting next to Daisy (actually not so poor as every time Aunt Elizabeth spoke to her, it was either how she was getting fat, living alone, and too smart for a man to fall in love with her).

“Language,” Abigal said, scolding her but Jemma saw the smirk. She liked Daisy, and really Jemma did too.

“Sorry,” Daisy said, easily still smiling as she turned to the boys and said, “buttocks,” in her most posh voice. Jemma could have started laughing had she not choked on a bite of ham. Daisy’s festivities stopped immediately as she turned to pat her on the back.  “You okay?” She held out a glass of water for her.

“Yeah,” Jemma said, meeting Daisy’s eyes and give her the most honest-smile she could. She was more than okay. She was falling in love with her fake date and it would be ending soon and they’d be leaving, and –

All thoughts stopped as Daisy kissed her on the lips, still smiling wide. “Good. Can’t have you choking yet.” She winked, actually winked at her, and all Jemma could do was blush a deep red.  She hadn’t been expecting the soft lips on hers, but it was rather nice, and calming, and wonderful.

“Such displays at the dinner table,” her mother said, glaring at her. “It is unbecoming of a young lady.”

“What? Two people showing they’re in love?” Daisy immediately turned herself to face her mother. “Or is two women you have a problem with?”

“I don’t have a problem with…lesbians,” her mother practically growled the word out.

“It’s okay to say it – ‘Lesbian.’ That wasn’t too hard, was it? ‘Lesbian.’” She turned to the rest of the table. “Everybody now.”

And somehow, Daisy had the table join in a rousing chorus of the ‘Lesbians.’ Each word made her mother turn redder and redder, her lips disappearing as she glared at Daisy. Jemma gripped Daisy’s hand, not to get her to stop, but to stop herself from falling under the table in laughter.

“I won’t have any more of this tomfoolery at my table,” her mother said after regain her composure.

“How about Alice-foolery?” Daisy asked, getting her nephews to start laughing again.

“We will have a nice, quiet dinner. No more discussion of politics, or popular culture, or…lesbians.” Her mother glared at Daisy at the final word, who just shrugged and stole a potato off Jemma’s plate. She retaliated by spearing a green bean.

Daisy leaned over and whispered, “How am I doing?”

“Amazing,” Jemma said, stealing a kiss of her own. She caught the look of surprise in Daisy’s eyes, then something else, before her shy smile returned.

Stepping out of their own little world, Jemma turned to see Uncle Aldridge still glaring at them, except now, it was worse. There was something in his eyes, the kind of thing that made her initially hesitant to come out to her parents. Daisy made this whole being out thing easy, but it wasn’t, and maybe eventually she would have come out to her family, but not without help, and quickly possible, not ever.

Uncle Aldridge kept glaring at them, even as he tore apart his dinner with his fork and knife. Before he stuffed his fat maw with completely unnecessary third helping of ham, he muttered, “dykes.”

Jemma froze, staring at her uncle. In fact most of the table had. Not Daisy though.

Daisy grabbed her wine glass and threw the contents at Uncle Aldrige. Most of it was already on the table or Aunt Elizabeth, so only a few meager drops hit his face. Not deterred, Daisy grabbed Jemma’s wine glass and tossed the contents at him – along with the glass. Uncle Aldridge’d been expecting the wine after the first attempt, but the glass followup kind of surprised everyone. 

Daisy violently stood up, knocking her chair to the ground. “You – you –you…” She kept clenching and unclenching her fists and Jemma slowly became worried that Daisy might actually try and kill her uncle if she didn’t stop. Jemma stood, grabbing her fake-girlfriend’s vibrating hands.

“It seems we’re not wanted here anymore,” Jemma said with as much decorum as she could. Her father just glared at her from his end of the table while her mother didn’t even look up from her dinner. Her heart crushed a little at the sight, but she was done with them. “We will be leaving.”

“Jemma,” Abigail started to get up but her father cut in.

“If your sister wants to keep ruining our good name and debase herself that who are we to stop her,” her father said.

“Listen here asshole,” Daisy started, turning to give him a piece of her mind. Jemma grabbed the hand that pointed at her father, pulling it back to her side.

“He’s not worth it,” Jemma whispered to her before pulling her from the room. She lead the still silently fuming Daisy up to their room and left her in the center as she went about collecting their things and packing their bags. By the time she was done, Daisy calmed down and looked so sad.

“What’s wrong?” Jemma wrapped her in a hug, pulling Daisy as close as she could.

“I think I took it too far,” Daisy murmured into her neck.

“Oh sweetie, you didn’t,” she said, kissing the crown of her head. “This…this was always going to happen.” Jemma truly believed that: Her family was too conservative, too restrained to even accept that she loved science more than money, that she loved women and men. She never fit in with them, and it wasn’t until she left for college did she even find people who she could relate to. Daisy gave her impetus to do this, to be free and she'd never be sorry about that. 

“I’m sorry, he shouldn’t have said that. It was wrong.” Daisy kept talking as if she never heard her. She clung to Jemma, whispering and repeating the words over and over again. All she could do was comfort Daisy as she processed everything that happened.

After a few minutes, Jemma stepped back, still holding onto Daisy’s hand. “Come on. Let’s head out, find a place to stay the night, and figure out what we’ll do from there.”

“Sounds good,” Daisy said between sniffles. “Can I?” She motioned toward the bathroom, heading there as soon as she received a nod from Jemma.  It gave her a chance to gather her thoughts and finish packing.

Jemma didn’t regret what happened downstairs. She didn’t regret coming out to her parents. She regretted bring someone as wonderful as Daisy into all of this. She never met someone like her, so filled with compassion that she even forgot her own well-being. She fought hard for her downstairs in her own way, questioning everything Jemma always wanted to and forcing her family to show themselves. Regardless of what happened next, she knew at least Abigail could be considered a friend, which made all of this more worthwhile than Daisy could ever know.

She was just finishing up when Daisy came back into the room, holding their bathroom supplies, along with a few towels. A cocked eyebrow only got a shrug in response. “It’s not a hotel, and technically you still have to pay for them if you take them from a hotel.”

“They won’t be missed.” Daisy said, packing her stuff away after handing Jemma hers. “Besides, it’s way better than what I’ve got. Like tons better. Never had towels this fluffy.” She stuffed them into her luggage before pushing it all down to zip it up. Jemma watched her tongue stick out as she tried to close the bag. Jemma desparately wanted to kiss her again, but this was just a fake-date/family dinner and now the dinner was over. “And…there! Ready?”

“Yeah, I am.” Jemma took her hand and grabbed her own bag with the other. “Let’s get out of here.”

**I0I**

If Jemma’s dreams came true, she would have told Daisy that she liked her and wanted to try and date her for real. Daisy probably would have said yes, and it would have been awkward, but their friend would have thought iwas a great love story. Maybe they could even sell the movie rights or something.

            But life wasn’t a dream. After leaving the house, they found a hotel and just crashed for the night. They kept talking about nothing and everything, and Jemma only found herself falling more and more in love with Daisy. She didn’t want to leave their little winter wonderland, but it was coming to an end.

            When they landed back in Seattle, they agreed to stay in contact, maybe even meet up for a beer or two sometimes.  Jemma waited for a week, then two, then a month, but by the time she gathered her courage to try and get a hold of Daisy, the phone number was no longer connected. That had been six months ago. Had she not saved pictures of her and Daisy together, smiling, laughing, just being a fake-wonderful couple that she desperately wanted to be a real couple, she would have thought it all was a dream. But even Fitz agreed they were a cute couple.

            “Come on, let’s go.” Jemma looked up from the array she’d been working on to see Fitz  standing at her station.

            “Go where?”

            “May says she’s worked it out with a food truck to come onsite. Though we could try that,” Fitz said. “Might take your mind off your problems.”

            “I’m not having problems,” Jemma grumbled. She saved her progress and secured the station before grabbing her shoulder bag. as she followed him out the door. “Things would an improvement if I was having problems.”

            “You know we could probably find her, right?”

            “Fitz, it’s been six months. She said she was a hacker. If she wanted to find me, she would.” Jemma tried to keep the sigh out of her voice. She was tired of explaining this to others. She only had to maintain the charade with Abigail right now, claiming Daisy was busy with some things and couldn’t make a dinner between sisters, so that simplified her life. Not as much as actually dating Daisy would have, but simpler was better.

            There was a line at the food truck already, hints of cumin and bbq sauce filling the air. Other scientists and works were crowding the area, and she even recognized a few from the nearby office building. Fitz pulled her into line, and Bobbi joined them shortly after.

            “How long does this take?” She asked without looking up from her phone.

            “They’re pretty quick,” Fitz said, even as they were moving up in the line.

            The food truck was called The SHIELD, and seemed to offer different types of barbeque items. That could be rather messy, so hopefully they offered something that she was less likely to drop on her clean blouse. As they got closer, she spotted a pull pork sandwich that would be acceptable.

            “Hi,” she said, greeting the middle aged man working the window.

            “Hi there, I’m Phil. What can I get you?” He offered her an easy smile.

            “The pulled pork with top-secret sauce,” she said, “and a water.”

            “That’ll be eight even,” he said. She handed him a ten as he held out a water to her. She noticed the black-hand that ended just above his wrist. The question of how that happened died on her lips, but Fitz had no qualms.

            “That is amazing,” he said, staring at the robotic hand. Phil held up the prosthetic, smiling even with the invasive stares. He flexed his hand, letting the fingers open and close.

            “I know,” he said, “lost if a few years back, and they upgraded me to this just a few months ago. Makes it so much easier to cook too. Name?” He directed the last question to her as he held out the change.

            “Jemma,” she said, dropping the two dollars into a tip jar. He smiled nodding at her before turning to tell his partner, a young woman with short hair her order. Jemma took a step away, but noticed the woman froze as she worked the grill. Fitz’s conversation with her drew her attention, and before she knew it, a hand pulled her around to meet the fake-date she’d been dying to talk to for six months.

            “Jemma,” Daisy breathed out before framing her face with her hands and kissing her. Jemma froze for only a moment before giving in. She kissed Daisy just the way she’d been dying to since Christmas. Her breath disappeared and it was only the need to breath that stopped her. Heck, the kiss even tasted of Christmas, of joy, and laughter, and everything she wanted out of the world. “I’m so sorry,” Daisy whispered again her lips, echoing the words from Christmas. “I can explain, and you probably hate me. But let me explain, please.”

            “Okay,” Jemma said, willing to give Daisy anything if she’d kiss her again.

            “I’ve got to get back to work,” Daisy said, stepping away but not letting go of her hands. She kept backing up, tugging Jemma along with her before finally letting go after a few steps. “Don’t run or go anywhere. I’ll be back. Okay? Okay. Just…stay.” She motioned for Jemma like she was dog, but she could hardly be offended by it. Daisy looked so shy and nervous, and all she wanted to do was kiss her again. Before she had the chance to, Daisy turned and hurried back to the truck. Jemma caught the amused look on Phil’s face even as everyone around her stared at her.

            “You’ve got a little,” Bobbi motioned to her cheek. Jemma touched it, finding something sticky. Bringing it to her lips, she smiled around the tart, sweet flavors.  “Any good?”

            “Hmm?” Jemma hummed around her finger. Fitz was staring at her too, and all she could do was watch Daisy work from the small window of the truck.

            “The sauce? Any good?” Bobbi smirked.

            “Yeah,” Jemma said, catching Daisy’s gaze as she handed another customer their meal. “It’s really good.”

            When her name was called, Daisy handed her food to her with a grin, and a little note. That note was a new phone number, presumable an answer to why she couldn’t call her before. The sandwich tasted just as good as Jemma thought, the top-secret sauce having a little kick that made it so much better. Daisy kept looking over at her, smiling at her as she ate with her friends. Jemma didn’t know what the conversation they were having was about, all she could think about was the kiss, and Daisy, and Christmas.

            Jemma waited well after her lunch hour ended, with Bobbi and Fitz promising they would cover for her with May. Daisy came out of the truck, wiping her hand on a dirty towel. “You stayed.” She breathed out, smiling even wider at her.

            “Of course. Where else would I be?”

            “I’m so sorry,” Daisy said as she took her hand. “Things…happened and I can’t explain it all right now, but I owe you so big, and you were so perfect. I wanted to call. I should have called. But things happened, and its not excuse and I’m sorry. So sorry.”

            “Do you need to finish work first?” Jemma asked, looking back to see Phil cleaning something.

            “Yes. Yes, I do. I just wanted to make sure you had my number. And to tell you I’m sorry. Again. Cause I am,” Daisy said. She kissed the hand she was holding once more before letting go. “So please, call me and I can explain.”

            “Over drinks?”

            “Yes.”

            “A really date then?” Jemma bit her lip, trying not to smile.

            “Whatever you want,” Daisy said, taking several steps back. “Just call me. Please.”

            Jemma watched her go, smiling to herself as she pulled out the little card with Daisy’s number scrawled on it. It was a business card for their food truck, with a little eagle on it in a shield. Turning the card over again, she memorized the number and then just to be safe, she entered it into her phone as she headed back to work. One quick text later, she slid her phone back into her pocket, satisfied with today and excited about tonight.

            Her pocket vibrated with a response. Looking around, everyone else was busy on their projects, even Bobbi. So Jemma took a chance to read the text.

            _BEST DAY EVER! TTYL?_

Yes, it was the best day ever. Jemma smiled to herself before focusing on her project at hand. She needed to finish early, because for once she had a date to get ready for.

           

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing, which is sad, but I get to play in their world, which is good. The Season 2 Finale definitely happened, which is sad, but it helped build this wonderful story, which is good.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Good night, and good luck.


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